Here is a photo of the succulent I started with. I included it back in November '14 in my November Favorites video. This variety is called a topsy turvey, and I bought it at our local hardware store's garden center. After a few months, it started to grow too tall and bend over. I thought it was going to die, so I decided to try to propogate it. Needles & Leaves post on propagation really helped!

Here is what it looked like in the first stages of propagation. As you saw above, the succulent plant was pretty tall. I stared at the bottom and gently pulled off most of the leaves. You have to pull and wiggle them gently until they pop off to properly grow them. I left the leaves intact at the very top of the plant, and cut that off of the long stem. I pulled the stem from the pot, and threw it away. I wasn't really sure if it would grow anything, and the leaves felt like enough to manage for a first time experiment.

After 5 weeks on the windowsill, the leaves began to grow little red roots. I laid them on top of some potting soil in a pot that was about one foot long, and 6 inches wide. Once on top of the soil, the baby succulents bloomed quickly. Over a few weeks the leaves grew from the size of a pencil tip to about a centimeter long. They didn't really take root in the potting soil, and they stayed attached to their leaves which ended up shriveling and turning brown. I left them like this for a while and just misted them with water every week.

Here are the 3 tiny pots I made for the baby succulents. Forms found in nature inspire my home decor work. The pot on the bottom left is modeled after a beehive, the one on top is meant to be like a blooming tulip, and the bottom right give the feel of wood. These tiny pots are available for sale in custom colors. Contact me. More How-To details below!

The plant on the far right is the top section of the original plant. Similarly to the leaves - after 5 weeks, the stem started to grow little red roots, I just went ahead and planted it directly into the original pot, and it's been doing great. The little guys are doing okay in their new homes. Some of them have dried up. I used cactus soil and topped with teeny rocks. Still exploring the best soil to planet the babies in...

More on those tiny little pots: I made the beehive & tulip pots by pinching balls of clay about 1.5" in diameter. I simply shaped them with my hands to until I got the look I wanted. I textured them by scratching, and rolling on cement. Clay is such a great material because it can be pressed with any texture. The wood inspired pot started out as a ball as well. I slapped it on each side until it became more square. Then I scooped out the area where I wanted the soil to go. After that, I paddled the clay with a wooden spoon to create texture, sharp lines, and dimension.

Do you find succulents easy to grow and care for? What's your favorite type? What are your planting tips?